Democratic presidential candidate race: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders wrangle over Syria in third debate

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders argued over foreign policy but made up over a campaign data breach on Saturday night, as the three remaining Democratic presidential candidates met for their third debate in New Hampshire.

Mr Sanders went in search of open policy ground between himself and the former US Secretary of State, saying he was worried “Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change.” In Syria, the Vermont senator went on, the US ought to set aside toppling President Bashar al-Assad and focus its energies on Isis. “The primary focus now must be destroying Isis and working over the years to get rid of Assad,” he said. “That’s a secondary issue.”

Ms Clinton responded by reminding her rival he had voted in favour of removing Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from power in Libya in 2011. On Syria, she said Mr Sanders’s proposal was “exactly” what she had recommended, but added: “We will not get the support on the ground in Syria to dislodge Isis if the fighters there who are not associated with Isis, but whose principal goal is getting rid of Assad, don’t believe there is a political, diplomatic channel that is ongoing.”

The pair were more polite when it came to the data breach, which occurred last week when Mr Sanders’s staffers took advantage of a glitch in the firewall for the Democratic National Committee’s database to access private voter data amassed by the Clinton campaign. Mr Sanders has since fired his campaign’s data director and two others. At the debate, he apologised to Ms Clinton and to his supporters, insisting: “This is not the kind of campaign that we run.”

Ms Clinton readily accepted the apology: “I don’t think the American people are all that interested in this.”

The third candidate on stage, the former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, nonetheless butted in with a conspicuously prepared talking point accusing his rivals of “bickering”.

Mr O’Malley, who boasts less than 5 per cent of Democrat voters’ support, has struggled to make himself heard over the din of the nomination battle between the centrist Ms Clinton and socialist Mr Sanders. Mr Sanders has a modest poll lead in New Hampshire, but the former Secretary of State remains the overwhelming favourite for the nomination, running an average of more than 25 per cent ahead of Mr Sanders in national polls, according to Real Clear Politics.

Of the 14 candidates still in contention for the Republican nomination, just one was namechecked at the Democrat debate: Donald Trump. Mr O’Malley accused the GOP frontrunner of fascism. Ms Clinton said the billionaire property mogul’s bashing of Muslims meant he was “becoming Isis’s best recruiter.” Mr Sanders accused Mr Trump of race-baiting Republican voters to distract them from their economic woes.

In a spirited critique of Trumpism, Mr Sanders said: “He thinks a low minimum wage in America is a good idea. He thinks low wages are a good idea. I believe we stand together to address the real issues facing this country, not allow them to divide us by race or where we come from. Let’s create an America that works for all of us, not the handful on top.”

Saturday’s debate was organised by ABC News, which was criticised afterwards for its moderators’ failure to ask any questions about climate change, a week after the US joined 194 other countries in signing a historic climate change accord in Paris. That deal is a point of disagreement for the Democratic candidates: Ms Clinton has praised it, while Mr Sanders decried it as insufficient.​​

Ms Clinton earned raucous applause for her closing statements, concluding with a quote from Star Wars: “Goodnight, and may the force be with you.” This was not merely a topical reference: JJ Abrams, director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and his wife Kathleen McGrath between them donated $1m to a Clinton-supporting super PAC (political campaign group) earlier this year.